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Summary: In Florida, people with felony records are fighting to regain their voting rights. But the coronavirus has made that struggle more difficult.

Florida voters passed an amendment to the Florida Constitution in a 2018 ballot initiative to restore voting rights to many categories of people with felony convictions in the state. More than 1.4 million people with felony convictions, or “returning citizens,” became eligible to vote in Florida in January 2019.

Also in 2019, Florida passed a law that made paying off fines and fees a new requirement for returning citizens. Voting rights advocates are suing over that law, and now COVID-19 has made restoration of rights more difficult for many with felony records.

May 19th, 2020 video and resource materials from PBS NewsHour.

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